Ironically, while on social media a few weeks before the issue of "media fasting" was raised, I came across a tweet that I would like to highlight as a powerful representation of embodiment of social and cultural issues that being constantly connected has created and perpetuated: a social expectation of communication through media. The tweet reads "'I'm not intentionally ignoring you, I just have no motivation to respond the way I feel you deserve' - a novel of mine" with over 28,000 retweets and 64,000 likes, Twitter demonstrates the mass audience reached through social media such popular apps as such. The sheer number of people who agreed with the tweet, whether expressing that approval through a “like” or a “retweet”, is an indisputable demonstration that the use of social media – as warned the Canadian professor and media guru Marshall McLuhan for decades - became an “extension of man”. This extension of man results in entrenched social expectations for communication through media. For a person to be considered ignored constitutes no acknowledgment or response from the other end of the conversation. This is exactly why the tweet is so problematic: the expectation has been established that if a media notification isn't immediately acknowledged, the recipient's sender might feel ignored if they don't see an immediate response. Communication being a key function of the media - noting their constant presence in our lives which gives us access to reach anyone else "plugged in" within seconds - I wanted to test this theory during the 24 hour digital detox and see which of my friends would react negatively if I were away from the phone for a couple of days. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Going into the experiment with the knowledge that I am someone who constantly keeps my phone with me, most of the time exclusively to listen to music while walking around campus from class to class, I knew I would have a better chance of not overcome the challenge by interacting with my social media if I had chosen a weekend day, especially Saturday. For most students, Saturday is considered a day to relax before going out in the evening. As far as I'm concerned, Saturday is rugby day. This presented the perfect opportunity to see how social media usage maintains its influential position in being a key supporter in an environment as disconnected from the media as being an athlete attending a sporting event would entail. Waking up at 8am, to the alarm on my phone, I realized that I had already failed at the first media interaction of the day by turning off the alarm and scanning the few messages I had received during the night. Before I unlocked it to respond, however, I considered how much better I would feel if I actually went from dawn to dusk without technology and put the phone down before going any further. What I thought would be a sad start to the day, not having my "morning music" ready to listen to on my phone, turned out to be a useful thing to start the day quicker than it would have been if I had spent ten minutes lying in bed procrastinating the alarm by scrolling aimlessly through Twitter. Arriving at camp on time, I couldn't help but notice the exhausted faces staring blankly at their phones through tightly pulled sweatshirts. The few smiling faces I saw were those who were already running around, abandoned by their portable devices.